A visitors guide to the Petronas Towers, Kuala Lampur, Malaysia
Even though we had this holiday last October, I thought I would write a review on the Petronas Towers which we visited while we were in Kuala Lumpur. It was certainly worth the visit to say the least, so I hope the review does it justice.
The History of the Petronas Towers.
This was once classified as the worlds tallest structure but due to changes in measuring these things it falls a little short today to the Sears Tower in Chicago.
These were designed by a Norwegian Dawid Muano and the construction got underway in 1995 and was completed in 1998. The 88 floors are mostly constructed of re-enforced concrete with a Stainless steel and Glass front. When we arrived through the ticket collection point we were shown a short video of the construction. In the video it stated that the design resembled that of a Islamic motif and was a reflection of Malaysia’s Muslim religion.
Because of the bedrock below the site of the Towers the foundations are the biggest in the world at 120 metres!
What I found fascinating was that they used two separate companies to build a tower each and therefore created a sort of rush or race to complete each one in turn. The builders of Tower 2 won the race to complete even though they started a month later than Tower 1!
Obtaining Tickets.
Now I obtained the tickets on a Sunday morning and had to leave the hotel we stayed in in Kulua Lumpur’s Golden Triangle at about 7am to follow the well signposted directions to the Towers. This took about 20 minutes on foot from our hotel.
Upon arrival I walked to the basement of the towers and was probably about 15th in the queue which I was rather impressed with!.
The ticket booths opened at 8:30am and by the time I would say 200 plus people were queuing to obtain tickets.
When you get to the member of staff handing out the tickets you are requested to state at which time you would like to visit the towers and this is booked in half hourly increments.
We decided to visit the towers at 1pm so we had the morning to wander around the City and make the journey back towards the Towers.
There is actually no cost to visit the Towers that is why it is very important that you get there early on the day you visit as they only allow 1400 ticket sales in any one day, so to avoid disappointment get there early.
Visiting The Tower
The purpose of visiting the tower is to learn a little bit about the history of it and also to visit the Sky Bridge which is on the 42nd floor. Unfortunately this
Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur
May 13, 2009 by admin
Filed under Tourist Attractions
One of the most interesting places to visit in Asia is Kuala Lumpur and one of the major attractions there is the Petronas twin towers. These magnificent structures stand 458 meters tall and have 88 floors. The foundation of these towers stretches 120 meters underground. The towers themselves are made primarily of reinforced concrete and steel with a glass façade. Construction on these towers was finished in 1996.
Visitors are allowed to go to the 41st floor to see the sky bridge. From this vantage point you can see the park below and on a clear day all the surrounding cities of Kuala Lumpur. In order to get into the sky bridge it is necessary to get a pass. These passes are given to about 1400 people every day, and usually they are all distributed before noon, so make sure you get there very early to ensure that you manage to get one.
In a building this massive it would seem logical that the elevator system be huge and I can assure you that you will not be disappointed. There are 3 groups of elevators that together service all the floors in the building. The elevator cars are two stories, so one story handles the even floors and the other handles the odd floors. These elevators are also specially equipped with a number of safety devices. The one that is the most interested is the way that one elevator can go up beside another elevator and evacuate people from it if it gets stuck or jammed between floors.
The petronas Company is the one and only tenant of tower one. The other tower called Tower 2 is available for rent to other tenants’. Currently Accenture, Bloomberg, Boeing, IBM, Microsoft, Reuters, and a large number of smaller firms all call this tower home.
At the base of the towers there is a shopping plaza called Suria KLCC. It has a large number of shops featuring all kinds of different merchandise. On the 4th floor you will find the petroleum development centre.
Just outside the plaza is the KLCC Park. This park has jogging and walking paths, a wading pool, and a children’s playground. It has a very large water fountain with built in lighting that puts on a fantastic show, as the water blasts high into the air. Getting to the towers is easy. Take the Putra train right to the towers.
